1. Overview

The client was chatting with people on the issue of gender equality in Naver internet cafe. The argument broke out, she got offended by the comment and wrote “You are the true Korean man insect (Han-nam-choong)”. And later, the person accused the client for insulting

2. Applicable Law

Criminal Act

Article 311

A person who publicly insults another shall be punished by imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding two million won.

3. Assistance of Counsel

The client's parents visited Law-Win Busan office and said the client is currently working in abroad, so she has hard time coming to Korea for police interrogation and asked help to avoid criminal charges. In response, Law-Win lawyers explained the fact that if an amicable settlement is reached with the accused, there will be a decision of non-prosecution disposition at the police stage. Therefore, Law-Win lawyers did their best to reach a settlement by contacting the police officer in charge to get the accuser's personal information and reached out for one month. At first, the complainant had no intention at all to settle with the client, but after the lawyers contacting several times on behalf, the complaint withdrew the case against the client.

4. Outcome

As a result, the police officer made a 'decision of non-prosecution' due to the withdrawal of the complaint.

5. Significance of the Outcome

In the case of insult, there are very few cases in which an amicable settlement is reached between the complainant and the accused because of the bad feelings between the two parties. Knowing this fact, Law-Win lawyers in Busan Office directly reached a settlement with the complainant, and in the end, the client was able to return to her usual routine.

Attorney Bae, Kyong-min, Kim, Jeong-hun, Park, Su-jin and Woo, Ji-won